Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Hunter Valley Easter Weekend

Last weekend was the long Easter weekend, which meant a total of 4 days off work! There need to be more of these types of weekends... I decided that Frankie and I should go away for the weekend and to go to the hunter valley cause we both hadn't been there for ages.

As you can see it was quite cold that weekend and luckily I had my big comfy jumper. We stopped outside Peterson's Champagne House (which was closed) which has the best champagne ever. We went there the next day and bought a few bottles. The place was packed though.

We then stopped at Tempus Two, which was huge. They were doing helicopter flights too.

After going to as many wineries as we could squeeze into 2 hours (that were open on good Friday) we headed to our lovely accommodation at thistle hill. The grounds were beautiful and our hosts were very lovely too. I had a bit of a headache when we got there and she brought out a pot of peculated coffee and panadol for us. Very nice indeed.

They even had a pet kangaroo Chloe! She was blind and had been living at the grounds for years.

She was knocking her head against the door cause it was dinner time!

On Saturday we got up early and had a beautiful breakfast which was provided at the guesthouse. We then got going for a day of wine sampling! I am not sure how many wineries we visited, or bottles of wine we bought, but it was a lot! We hadn't booked anywhere for lunch, and soon found out that we should have. So when it got to about 2:30 we decided that we would just go to the smelly cheese company and get some cheeses and other things to eat back at the guesthouse with the free bottle of wine and cheese platter we were also given.

Gruyere Cheese, yum!

Frankie being artistic...look how green and beautiful the grounds are!

Our feast for lunch

Trying to open the cheese!

We also got some smoked trout which was beautiful!

After that Frankie rang around a few restaurants to book a late dinner. We then had a long nap to rejuvenate ourselves...

Frankie managed to book a place called "Splash at the Vineyards Estate" which was a lovely seafood restaurant on the same road as us. So we drove out of thistle hill and turned left onto hermitage road when we realised we should have turned right. Passed our guesthouse and then realised it was like 200 metres up the road! The driveway was really long and dark though, so luckily we didn't walk.

They had a 2 course for $55 or 3 course for $65 option, so we went for the 3 courses! I wasn't that hungry after our late lunch so stuck to things that weren't too heavy on the carbs.

Oysters w/ Splash Patrick

I love oysters any way and hadn't had kilpatrick for a while, so decided to get these. The oyster were beautiful and plump! Glad I chose this!

Frankie went with the scallops which were beautifully presented and very tasty.

Seafood Medley in Marinara Sauce

This was so good and had heaps of seafood in it. Because it came with slices of bread instead of pasta, it meant that more seafood could be added! It had muscles, calamari, prawns, scallops, pipis, and crab (which i was given all these utensils to eat it with). I think it had pancetta in it also. Very good.

Parmesan Crusted Veal w/ mash potato and seasonal vegetables

Frankie went with the theme of Parmesan and ordered this. How huge is it. Very good for the price i think.

I don't think they could have added any more chocolate to this! Talk about getting a chocolate fix. This was very good, not as good as the one I had at Bistro Lilly, but still very good.

Caramelised Apple Tart w/ Honey Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream

This was very good as well.

We even got a free bottle of wine at the end of the meal to take home with us which was awesome. Very good service too, although we ordered our dessert at the start of the meal, we were asked twice after our main course if we wanted dessert.... still very good.

It was such a lovely weekend and something I would love to do more often, although I don't think my bank account would allow for that...

3 comments:

Oh I love those kind of weekends, just wondering around with no sort of plan. Looks like you had a lovely time. I have not been to the Hunter Valley yet, just driven through it after the bush fires a few years ago. You guys should try Maclaren Vale in South Australia next, just beautiful. Or if your looking for something truly unique and romantic try this place, I guarantee you will love it. http://www.mouseshouse.com.au/

I reccomend either the Snow White Cabin or The Wicked Witch. I have stayed there many a time and it is so romantic.

Thanks for the information! I just checked out the mouse house website and it looks fantastic. There was a Thai restaurant on Mercurio's menu out in the sunshine coast as well that looked fantastic. Will have to make a trip up there soon!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but i have been busy moving into my new place! Now i am settled there will be a few posts on the way...